Russian Goodies

Went to the Russian store the other day with one of my coworkers (she is Russian)  She has warned me that most Russian stores in the area are not good to go to if you are not Russian as sometimes they will charge you extra.  Well this new store we found called "Moscow" is great!  The owners are so kind, the place is super clean, and they have an amazing selection it seems.  On our last visit I loaded it up on goodies with the help of the girl that worked there.  When Natasha (my coworker) and I walked in she stared talking to the employees and I wandered off towards the sodas. I don't generally do not like American soda, but for some reason I have loved all the Russian soda that I've tried.  Even the Kvass (not exactly a soda), which taste like a mix of soy sauce and beer has grown on me, and now I find myself craving it.  Natasha had told me it was like Russian rootbeer, well it's nothing like rootbeer!  The girl that worked there came over to help me and then she asked if I like candy and chocolate, well of course I said yes.  She showed me all the different shelves of candy (which you buy by the pound)  Explaining what they were, and gave me samples of her favorites.  She just starting picking stuff up off the shelf, unwrapping it, and having me try.  She also gave me a sample of ... well, I don't know what it's called... but it's pressed sunflower seeds sometimes with a flavoring.  I loved it!


The big pink brick is the pressed sunflower seeds (I choose to try the unflavored one)

The Soda's:

The dark brown beverage Natasha and the girl described to me as a Russian version of Cola... well one of the men who worked there disagreed saying that it's more of a pine nut flavored carbonated drink... I have since tried it and agree with both opinion, it tastes a bit like Coke, but a bit more organic. 

The golden colored beverage I was told is a soda also, but they didn't tell me what flavor.  I will post more once I drink it.

The clear beverage is a Russian seltzer.  I personally think it's the best mineral water I have ever tasted!

On to the candies!!!

Bottom Left Corner:  These are dried fruits filled with marshmallow and the covered in chocolate.

Tiny Candies Directly Under the Bottles:  These are fruit flavored hard candies.  They are sweet but not as sugary as American hard candy, and they are almost sticky.  Jeffrey really loves them.

Under the Tiny Hard Candies:  These are other hard candies.  I have yet to try any, but am looking forward to doing so.

Top Right Corner:  These are like bonbons.  They are chocolate covered with different fillings.  The girl at the store had me try the blue one, and said that all of them are different flavors... So naturally I got one of each!

Bottom Right Corner:  These are flavored marshmallows covered in chocolate.  I am most excited to try these!

To end off my field trip to the Russian store I got to try a new candy they had gotten in but not put on the shelf yet.  It was a chocolate covered cherry.  However, unlike other cherry chocolates this one is alcoholic!  I went to bit into the hard shell and everyone there starting motioning for me to stop and tilt me head back.  Once I bit in I understood why, the candy is filled with about a full shot of liquor and a tiny little cherry.  It was nothing like our "liquor" candies in America, where it's candy flavored with a bit of Kahlua or something.  This was almost pure alcohol neatly contained in a chocolate coating.  Needless to say, I want more!

Surprise!

Jeffrey's surprise birthday bowling party went amazingly.  He had no idea that I had planned a party and I would not have been able to pull it off without the help of our friend Jorge Cruz.  I was able to get all the supplies to Jorge early in the day and he went to the bowling alley 1.5 hours early in order to make sure we were able to get two lanes next to each other and to set up the table with the birthday banner and "cake" (Jeffrey wanted a cookie for his birthday so I got a giant 8" x 6" cookie and 60 bit sized cookies)

I started my planning two weeks in advance by contacting everyone to see if they would be available.  Then on Thursday March 3rd I took the day off from work for a doctors appointment.  When I got there we had to reschedule for later in the day, thus giving me time to run around and plan Jeffrey's party more.  I ordered the cookie(s), called the bowling alley to try to pay for and reserve lanes and they told me they couldn't reserve on weekends due to them being so packed (hence why Jorge went at 6 pm and we still didn't get two lanes together until 8 pm), I also text/emailed everyone with details.  On Friday night I told Jeffrey "by the way, tomorrow night we are meeting Jorge and his girl for a double date bowling"  at which point he tells me "oh, I've made plans for tomorrow"  FFFFFFUUUUUUUUUUUU was all I could think.  Thankfully his were morning plans and it all worked out. I was even able to use the time he was out of the house to go pick up the cookie(s) and try to get balloons. Speaking of balloons, they didn't happen.  I walked into the party supply store, saw the balloons, and immediately remembered that they use helium and the worlds supply of helium is quickly being diminished.  So, I ended up getting a table "Happy Birthday" center piece. (side note:  the girl at the party supply store said to me "I thought we made helium"  *face palm*)

The plan was to get there at 7:30... well at 7:30 pm I was still trying to get Jeffrey out the door.  He was hounding me asking things like "are you sure Jorge is even there?"  by the time I finally got him in the car it was 7:50 and on the drive there he made me call Jorge to make sure he was on his way... I was having the hard time not cracking a smile and giving the whole thing away.  When I told him that "Yes, Jorge is on his way" Jeffrey started getting text from his other friends (who were all waiting at the bowling alley and texting Jeffrey inviting him to other things to throw Jeffrey off the trail of "surprise party")  One of the friends invited him over to hang out, and his house is in the south end of the valley and we were going to a bowling alley in the north end... well that upset Jeffrey, he started telling me that we need to meet up Jorge at a different bowling alley closer to the south end of the valley... Well, I was able to convince him that Jorge was almost to the original bowling alley and to just go there.  By the time we got there I was so thankful that I was able to get him there since he was making everything so difficult.

When we walked in Jorge ran up to us and bombarded Jeffrey with random conversation, at this point I noticed that our lanes weren't ready and that everyone was hiding the corner of the cafe trying not to be seen. Jorge managed to wrangle Jeffrey and me into the bar/lounge to get beer, and BS'ed with the bar tender long to make it so Jeffrey and I didn't get out beer until after they called the "Cruz party" out to our lanes (Jorge snuck out then to get everyone to the table at our lanes)  By the time we were walking out of the lounge I had to position myself behind Jeffrey so that he wouldn't see me trying not to smile or laugh.  He started walking down the back wall looking for Jorge and completely missed the fact that there was a massive group of his friends standing right there.  He only really noticed them when he got close enough and they all yelled "Surprise!"

I am so happy that I was able to pull this off and that he had no idea what was going down.  He was happy once he figured it out and that is the most important thing.